


Change

by EleenaDume



Series: And then it was you and me (against the universe) [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Republic Commando Series - Karen Traviss, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, But not as many as in canon, But the war is still over, Changing galaxy, Coruscant (Star Wars), Domestic Fluff, Etain being amazing, F/M, Family Fluff, Happy Family, Jedi, Jedi Council - Freeform, Jedi Master Anakin Skywalker, Mandalorian Culture, Nervousness, Nobody dies in this fic, Oder 66 didn’t happen, Okay technically people still died, people being happy, public speaking (sort of), supportive husband
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:00:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24058618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EleenaDume/pseuds/EleenaDume
Summary: Change was imminent. It had been since the war had ended.And the galaxy was already changing without their interference – but it wasn’t changing enough.Someone needs to step forward and speak about the clones and their uncertain future.Etain has never been the kind of person that likes being in the spotlight very much... but at the same time, she knows there might be no one else in the galaxy that can speak about this the way she could.So she decides she has to overcome her fears and speak for everyone she loves – no matter how hard it might be.Her voice needs to be loud enough for all the galaxy to hear.[Rated this way for some cursing in Mando’a.]
Relationships: RC-1136 | IC-1136 | Darman Skirata/Etain Tur-Mukan
Series: And then it was you and me (against the universe) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1723348
Comments: 3
Kudos: 18





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So basically, this takes place in an AU where Anakin helped arrest Palpatine instead of saving him, therefore, Order 66 never happened. The war ended shortly after, in a way more peaceful manner than it did in RotS.  
> Etain decided to stay with the Jedi Order, her reasons for this will be (partly) explained in this fic.

Etain’s entire body was shaking. She was so nervous she was certain she would either start crying or throw up. Maybe both. Force, she hadn’t even eaten anything she could have throw up, even if she’d wanted to, yet she still felt sick.  


This was so important, and it needed to be done, and nobody but her  could do it, but... what if she screwed it up? What if she couldn’t get this right and forgot everything she practiced and-

“Etain, are you okay?”

Great. Apparently she looked as bad as she felt. ...or maybe her husband just knew her too well.

“Great. I’m great. Wonderful.” 

She’d never been a good liar.

And she was actually crying now. 

Awesome.

Darman wrapped his arms around her.

“Hey, shhh, it’s alright. I’m here. It will be okay.”

He always made her feel so protected and secure. She would have been happy to just stay in his arms for the next few hours – or all eternity, if she could have –, but that wouldn’t solve anything. She needed to do this. And she needed to get it right, for him, and for all of his brothers.

“I’m so nervous, I feel like I’m dying.”

“That’s what this is about? Oh Etain...” He kissed her forehead and held her close. “Please remember you don't have to do this, okay? I don’t want you to do anything you don’t feel ready for. I hate seeing you so upset.”

She snuggled up to him and just sobbed a little.

“Don’t be so understanding. I feel awful about this. I have no right to be this upset.”

He rubbed her back to help her feel a little better. 

“It’s okay. If you can’t do this, I understand. You have done so much for us already. Don’t push yourself too hard.”

“Haar’chak, Darman, stop trying to talk me out of this!” Etain rarely ever cursed. It wasn’t even like she was really upset – she loved him for being so understanding. It just wasn’t very helpful right now, because it made her feel even worse about being so upset. “I have to do this. For you, and for Kad, and for everyone. We don't know what will happen if I don't.”

“I’m sor-”

“Don’t apologize!” She was laughing through her tears now. “I’m not mad at you. I’m... I’m mad at myself for being such a coward, and you encouraging me to look out for myself isn’t really helping. I don’t get to be selfish here. I don’t want to be. I appreciate that you want me to do what I feel comfortable with, but that really isn’t the solution here. I‘m done running away. I’m just... really, really nervous, and I’d need encouragement way more than you sweetly telling me I’m allowed to be a coward.”

Darman swallowed hard. 

He’d misjudged the situation terribly and told her the polar opposite of what she actually needed to hear... She was so amazing, and she wanted this so badly, despite her incredible nervousness that was apparently worse enough to made her cry, which just made her all the more amazing in his eyes... and she’d just wanted him to tell her she could do it, and he couldn’t even get  that right. 

He couldn’t even look at her.

“Shab, I’m a terrible husband. I should have known that. I’m so stupid sometimes.”

“Don’t say that. Look at me, Dar, alright?” 

He lifted his head. She smiled softly at him, cupped his face in her hands and kissed him. 

“You’re the best husband I could ever wish for. And the best friend, and the best person, and... I just love you so much. Meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to me. And you were just trying to comfort me. Are you sometimes a little too protective? Maybe. But I appreciate you looking out for me. A lot. You’re not stupid, and definitely not a terrible husband, alright?”

For some reason, she felt a lot better all of a sudden. 

There was something about her husband’s protective sweetness that helped her breaths steady again, and she felt much less shaky now. His arms around her made her feel safe and calm, and touching his presence in the force always made her feel better.

Maybe she would do that, later. Just stay connected to him, touch him even when she was physically away from him. That might help her stay calm.

“I want other people to see what was done to you. To all of you. And for them to realize how wonderful you and your brothers are. That’s incredibly important to me. That’s why I need to do this. So all of you can live better lives... not just the ones that your father rescued.”

He held his forehead against hers.

“You’re the most amazing person in the entire universe. I love you so much. You know nothing will ever change that, right?“

“I do. But that just makes me want to do this more. I’m just... afraid to screw it up. I’ve never spoken to an audience this big before, and even if most of them will never know who I really am...”

He squeezed her hand.

“You won’t screw this up. You can do this. I know you can. You’ll be perfect. And... maybe try to just not think about the audience. Just... imagine you were just telling it to me, and to Kad, and the people of the council you can see – and maybe just any random person you’re mad at if you start yelling. That person can also be me if that helps.”

She laughed.

“That’s very sweet of you, but please refrain from feeling yelled at during my speech. You’re the last person that I want to scold with what I’m going to say.”

“Got it, cyar’ika. Do you want to go through everything with Ordo one last time before you leave?”

The Jedi thought for a moment, then she shook her head.

“I think that would just make me even more nervous. And it might also take too long. But I want to say goodbye to Kad before I get going. I don’t want him to think his mom is forgetting about him.”

“I don’t think he ever would.”

  
  


Kad was still fast asleep... which really wasn’t all that surprising, considering he’d been awake most of the night. Darman had managed to calm the toddler down after a while, but it had been hours before he’d fallen back asleep. 

Darman didn’t mind. He’d already missed out on more of his son’s life than he wanted... he’d gladly spend every night awake for the rest of his life if that meant he could spend more time with Kad and make up for lost times.

He’d bathed and fed him and then played with him for a while until the boy had finally been tired enough to go back to sleep, and he was more than proud that he’d managed to do all of this, including sliding back into bed next to her, without waking his wife.

Kad had been sound asleep ever since.

Etain took her son into her arms, careful not to wake him.

“Hey, ad’ika. Mommy needs to go now, okay? But you don’t need to worry about me. I’ll be safe. It’s not dangerous. What you’re feeling is just mommy being really, really nervous because this is so important, alright?” 

She kissed Kad’s forehead. He really needed her to be close to him a lot recently, and when she was away for longer, he always got really upset. 

She didn’t really know why it was like this – it had never really been a problem during the war, after all –, but it was, so she reassured him that she would be back soon, even if she wasn’t sure he could hear her, asleep as he was.  


“Your buir will have to wake you up really soon so you can go meet the others, but you can still sleep some more until then, alright? I’ll see you later.”

She gently stroked his head one more time, then smiled at her son as she left the room. Darman pulled her close one more time and put his forehead against hers. 

“Ret'urcye mhi, cyar’ika. Take care of yourself. You can do this. I know you can. You’re the most amazing person in the universe, remember?”

She hugged, then kissed him one last time before adjusting the speaker button Jaing had given to her and putting her earpiece in.

“Pretty sure that can’t be true because I’m married to him, but that’s sweet of you anyway.”  Etain smiled at him, then closed her eyes and took a deep breath.  “Well, this is it. Here we go. And if I start to panic halfway through my speech, I’ll close my eyes and remember that I have people at home who are counting on me.”

“I’ll always love you. Nothing can ever change that. Now go change the galaxy,  _ner cyare_.”

She nodded. Etain was still incredibly nervous... but she felt ready now. She was more determined than ever.

“I will. I promise. I'll see you soon, love.” She turned around and opened the door as she activated her comlink. “Jaing, I’m leaving now. Is everything prepared?”

The sun was high in the sky already, Coruscant’s streets filled with traffic as they always were.

“Don’t worry, vod’ika, I’ve got you covered. Ready when you are.”


	2. Chapter 2

The temple felt huge.

...well, the temple  _ was _ huge, but Etain‘s nervousness made it feel even larger than it already was, and it felt way too easy to just turn around and run away before she ever reached her destination. 

But she didn’t. No matter how nervous she was, no matter how strong the urge to run got, she closed her eyes, forced herself to breathe, and continued walking towards the chamber of the Jedi High Council.

Everything felt so real and close and so in reach now, and no matter how nervous she was and no matter how much she had struggled with not feeling like she was a good Jedi in the past, she could do this. 

She would. 

She needed to.

Nothing in her life had ever been this important before.

The light chatter in her ear piece calmed her down a little, even if she couldn’t answer.

“We’ve gone over what you want to say several times. You’ll be good. I believe in you, vod’ika.”

Ordo.

“We’ve seen you fight enemies far worse than this. What’s the worst they could do? Ban you to do the Jedi equivalent of an office job for the rest of your life?”

Fi.

Etain found herself chuckling. He wasn’t wrong, exactly. And if they threw her out of the Jedi Order for this... they could do that just as well. She wouldn’t care. She’d contemplated leaving before, anyway... and the important part of this was that she was heard. 

After that, she would find a way – with or without the support of the Jedi.

“Office jobs aren’t even that bad most of the time, mind you.” Besany. “You can do this, Etain. You’re one of the strongest, most amazing persons I have ever met. No need to talk yourself down, you hear me?”

“It can’t be worse than teaching Ordo how to cook from what I’ve heard.”

One of these days, Fi’s light-hearted remarks would end up getting him in real trouble, certainly. At the moment, however, he was doing a good job keeping her from worrying too much.

“Hey!”

“Well, Bes’ika did say you spent more time eating during the cooking process than you were actually cooking,  ner vod .”

A’den.

She heard Besany chuckle.

“Give him a break, he’s trying, okay?“

The banter went on for quite a while, and Etain felt herself relaxing as she listened to it.

It helped calm her down before she actually started her speech.

None of them would actually be on her frequency when she would speak to the Council, so they wouldn’t distract her – save for Jaing, who would only contact her if there were any technical issues... which she was fairly certain there wouldn’t be. Her brothers-in-law were nothing if not good at their job.

But she was very thankful for the distraction for now.  
  


Etain paused in front of the doors of the Council chambers.  


She took a deep breath, then picked up her comlink again.

This was it.

“I’m ready.”

The com chatter died down immediately.

“Gotcha, vod’ika. Jate'kara ,  even though I know you won’t need any luck. Anyone else got anything left to say to her before we get this show on the road?”

She didn’t exactly hear most of the things that were said with almost her entire family speaking at once, but she knew they were all good things and a pleasant warmth spread in her.

“Vor’e, everyone.”

She couldn’t stop smiling.

“Boo ‘tep.”

Kad’s quiet, encouraging voice sounded so sweet it almost made her cry.

“Knock ‘em dead, cyar’ika.”

And she would. For Darman, and for Kad, and for everyone else that she owed it to, she would.

“Got it. Jaing... I’m ready.”

She closed her eyes once more, breathing slowly, steadily, and as she opened them again, fists clenched, she was more determined than she’d ever been in her entire life.

“And… we’re online. Audience: the entire galaxy from here to Outer Rim.”

Darman’s words were echoing in her head, calming her down as she reached for his presence and Kad’s one last time before she started speaking.

“Dear citizens of the Republic.” 

Her voice wasn’t as shaky as she’d expected it to be when she started speaking. She’d practiced this. She knew exactly what she wanted to say. 

“I am standing before the doors of the Jedi High Council chambers, with a matter that is dear to my heart. In my opinion, it concerns each and every one of us. The Council has promised to listen. I hope you will, too. It doesn’t matter who I am. Just know that I am a Republic citizen like you are.”

She’d decided to keep her identity a secret from the galaxy outside of her family and the Jedi High Council because she didn’t want anyone to think they owed her anything.

She did what needed to be done – what was right; what she would have done years ago.  


None of the clones owed her anything. 

”I can no longer close my eyes to this topic. None of us should. We need to talk about the clones, we should have done that a long time ago.”

She sounded certain and determined as she stepped forward and the doors opened in front of her. Etain could feel the eyes of each and every member of the Jedi High Council on her... and she didn’t mind. They needed to look at her. And more importantly than that, they needed to listen. 

She was glad Anakin was back now. From what she’d heard, he’d had a fairly close relationship to at least some of his clone subordinates. He was also a figure that the public knew and loved. If she’d get him to listen and understand and support her cause, that would be a giant step forward.

“Masters... I know I have never been an especially good Jedi. To be honest, I was about to leave the Order a few weeks ago. But then, suddenly, the war was over...” 

That moment still seemed surreal to her when she thought back to it.  


She’d expected certain things when she returned to Coruscant – and then, suddenly, shortly after she was finally back in her husband’s arms and getting ready to leave... the fighting stopped, and the war was over. 

Just like that.

“Back then, I realized that I couldn’t leave, because there was no certainty that if I leave, anyone else would take care of this matter how it needs to be taken care of. I’ve always been the kind of person that rather stays in the background.”

Sure, she’d fought back against certain orders for the lives of her men. She’d do it again whenever she needed to. But this was on a whole different level.

“These days are over now. I will scream and shout at the top of my lungs... so loud you can’t ignore me. So loud that no one can.”

That was what she was doing right now. Even if it was not literal screaming, she could be heard all across the galaxy in this very moment.

She didn’t know for certain how the Nulls had managed to not only hack the HoloNet but actually have her voice broadcast halfway across the universe – but they did.  


The more time she spent with those guys, the more certain she became that there were few things that they couldn’t do.

“I worry about the fate of the clones. They spent the last three years of their lives on the battlefield, fighting for the citizens of the republic – dying. For us. And how do we repay them? By disacknowledging their rights – the very same rights that every other Republic citizen takes for granted. They get equipped and fed... but not paid.”

Not that the food was even _good_.  


Etain still shuddered when she though back to the rations Darman had let her try when they first met.

”Officially, they don’t even have names – just numbers –, and even if they pick out a name for themselves, not everyone respects their choice and calls them by their names.”

A lot of Jedi didn’t even bother asking for names at all – not even the ones of their commanding officers that they worked side by side with day after day. Etain had never understood that.

“On the streets, they are looked at with in shame and disdain, if anyone dares to look at them at all. They aren’t talked about unless it is absolutely necessary. And if, during the war, they were so badly injured that there was little chance of recovery, or if they were deemed ‚useless‘ to the Republic thanks to an injury, the Republic medical stations were ordered to pull the plugs on them, because that’s easy and cheap.”

Etain still wasn’t over what had happened to Fi. When a regular citizen was injured or in coma, their relatives got to decide whether or not they should be kept alive. How was it that the government could just decide to end lives like this when it came to the clones?

“This is outrageous. They’re human beings with feelings and thoughts, just like us – not objects. Imagine this happening to a regular citizen. A medical station would get closed for that. But they weren’t. Because clones aren’t citizens per law.”

She paused for a moment.  


Nobody had interrupted her so far. The Council was just listening to her quietly.  


She tried not to focus too much on how they were looking at her. 

They’d always been hard to read to her. 

...a lot of Jedi were, safe for the young ones.

“So what are they? The records call them ,government property’. They are deprived of their rights, and people don’t like talking about them – that hasn’t changed since the war ended. We just let them die in our place, without ever asking them if that was what they wanted – who they wanted to be. The HoloNet-News loved talking about Jedi heroes during the war. But we aren’t heroes. No more than any of these men that fought for you, that died for you. None of the so called Jedi acts of heroism that you love praising so much would have been possible without these brave men. So why does nobody talk about them? The answer is both easy and really uncomfortable, and I think most of us know it at our core, but don’t want to hear it.”

Etain paused again. There was an amount of power and strength in her voice that she’d never knew she had before. All of her fear, all of her nervousness was gone now. And at this moment, she knew she could never stay quiet again the way she had used to do it. Something inside her had changed, and she found courage in herself. She wasn’t afraid anymore. She wasn’t some mistake the force had made. She was here for a reason.

Her voice held a grim determination when she continued.

“ **The Republic owns slaves.** Millions of slaves. That’s the unpleasant truth. That is what the clones are right now, law-wise. That’s why nobody wanted contact with clones, and that’s why we were so reluctant to talk about them. Because, at our core, we knew what they were, and we didn’t like it, but we still silently stand by and accepted it. We were safe in our homes – as long as the war was just on our holoscreens, it was fine, wasn’t it? It was far away and didn’t affect us. The war was just on screen, after all. It wasn’t like it actually hurt us.”

She didn’t exclude herself from this, even though she had been out there fighting with her men for almost the entire war. But they’d still fought for her, and a lot of the time endangered themselves more than they’d endangered her.  


She should have spoken up sooner. 

She should have found more ways to help them and saved more of her men... but she was here now, and she did for them what she could still do, now that the war was over.

“But there were men that were suffering dying for us out there. Men that were never given a choice. And most of us just silently accepted that – because that was just strangers out there. Strangers that were merely an image on a screen, and far away from our reality. Strangers that were conditioned to be obedient _**and**_ _** then forced to die for a Republic of people they didn’t even know, that refused to acknowledge they existed at all! ** ” _

A lot about the entire situation seemed so ridiculous and cruel that it made her downright sick.  


How could this have happened?

It still seemed somewhat surreal to her.

“How can an Order like the one of the Jedi, that swore to keep the peace and protect innocents, tolerate this, let alone take part in this kind of discrimination without batting an eye? How can a Republic that promises equality and that preached high values just look away and accept this?!” 

She took a deep breath. 

“Are you ashamed now? Because I am. I’m ashamed. All of us all should be.”

She loved her family to death, and she felt awful for everything that had happened to the guys she considered brothers – even the parts that she wasn’t personally responsible for somehow felt like they were her responsibility, at least partly.

“How could we let this happen? It doesn’t matter now that Palpatine orchestrated the war. We can blame him for the deaths and the war all we want, but it won’t change the fact that all of us just sat by and silently accepted what was happening to the clones without interfering. And, even worse, now that the war is over, _we as a society are still not acknowledging them as people_. They’re humans. Millions of humans. That’s not the kind of problem you can ignore until it goes away. **The situation of the clones needs to change, immediately.** ”

Hopefully, what she was saying now actually reached enough people to really change the galaxy.

“So what if they were bred for war? So what if they all have the same genetic code? That shouldn’t matter. They’re still individuals. Of all the clones I’ve worked with in these three years of war, I’ve never met two that were the same.”

And she was certain that she never would.

“We can’t turn back time now. We can’t go back and make all of our mistakes and all the injustices that have happened over the past few years null and void. What has happened cannot be undone. But we can change things moving forward.”

Dwelling on past mistakes wouldn’t change the situation. 

Changing people’s future behavior would.

“The clones need to be granted the same civil rights that the rest of us have, immediately. They deserve compensation for everything that they went through, and actual, real, medical help for their physical injuries and mental trauma. We need to establish places that help to integrate them into regular society – and give them the ability to learn different jobs if they don’t wish to remain with the army. Let them figure out who they want to be, what their dreams are, after they’ve been trained for nothing but war their entire life. And we need to find a way to stop their accelerate aging, so they can actually live a normal, full-length human life.”

Etain felt herself getting more and more emotional the further she got with her speech – but she didn’t care. Maybe the emotion in her voice, however distorted it might end up thanks to Jaing, helped reach more people and made them realize that she actually meant every word.

If that got her kicked out of the Jedi Order... so be it. She wasn’t ashamed of how emotional and important this topic was to her.

“But, most importantly: stop looking at them in disdain. Be thankful for everything they sacrificed for you and show them that you are instead of being too ashamed to acknowledge they exist. Try to actually get to know them. And I hope for the Jedi to lead by example when it comes to this. We need to apologize for our wrongdoings, and if nothing else, for just accepting the way they were treated. I want to be the first one to do so. I’m sorry I took so long to find my voice. I’m sorry if any of you ever felt used or mistreated by me, and I promise I will do everything in my power to make sure your rights will be equal to mine as fast as possible. You are the strongest, greatest guys I‘ve ever had the honor to meet, and I hope the rest of the galaxy will finally learn that. Thank you for everything.”

Etain heard her comlink click, signaling to her that it was over, and she finally felt like she could breathe again.

She was still shaking from all the emotions she’d just felt, and she was pretty nervous about the Council’s reactions, but she was glad she’d done what she had and pretty proud of how well she had done. She just hoped that her husband and his brothers were okay with what she’d said, and...

“Kandosii, vod’ika. Ori’vor’e.”

Jaing’s voice was soft and almost breaking.

It was a short message, and then the com connection cut off, as to not interrupt what she had to discuss with the council, but it meant the world to her.

She looked up at the Council, not feeling as small anymore as she had during all of her years of being a Jedi... and she felt ready for whatever judgment she was about to receive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> Feedback on this would be very much appreciated, especially because I get insanely nervous about everything RepComm-related I write even more than on my usual stories, probably because the fandom is so small and most people have very strong opinions about both the books and the characters (watch me get even more anxious about the last chapter because I have to include Kal in that one and oooh boy does the fandom [understandably] have opinions on him and I genuinely don’t know how to write him. If someone could help me here, it would be much appreciated).  
> Feel free to criticize any parts of the speech that you don’t like so I can change them, that would be very helpful.
> 
> Mando‘a-words used:
> 
> vod‘ika ~ little sister  
> Bes‘ika ~ nickname, literally “little Besany”  
> ner vod ~ my brother  
> Jate’kara ~ good luck, literally “good stars”  
> vor’e ~ thank you  
> boo ‘tep (from buir kotep) ~ mom brave  
> cyar‘ika ~ darling, sweetheart  
> Kandosii, vod’ika. Ori’vor’e. ~ Well done, little sister. Thank you so much.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading :)  
> The idea for this first part was actually meant as sort of an introduction – and then the “introduction” ended up being 1.5K words, which... felt a little long for a introduction, so I made it a separate chapter XD
> 
> Hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> Mando’a-words used:
> 
> haar’chak – damn it  
> cyar’ika – sweetheart  
> ad’ika – little one  
> buir – father  
> Ret'urcye mhi – goodbye  
> ner cyare – my beloved  
> vod’ika – little sister


End file.
